In general, when molding a green tire, a plurality of fine pores are provided on the face of the tire mold, and air between the mold face and the green tire is removed through the fine pores. In this case, however, rubber protrusions (spews) form on the outer surface of the product tire, and it is troublesome to remove the spews.
To address this problem, JP 2002-240042 A (PTL 1) proposes a tire for which an attempt was made to provide an inexpensive mold without producing spews and without requiring vacuuming by forming the mold from a plurality of pieces divided in the tire circumferential direction, forming a piece edge gap for air release, and providing an airflow path, on the mold face of the piece, in communication with the piece edge gap and constituted by fine irregularities. The piece edge gap is constituted by an edge portion, of at least one of adjacent faces of contacting pieces, at the mold face side being narrowed in width continuously over roughly the entire adjacent face.